Graphic Design

Mikayla LeAnn

Book Cover Redesign

2017

For a class assignment, we had to choose three books from a list and make typographic covers for them that would allow them to go together. They had to have some form of similarity to permit this combination. I selected three books written by Malinda Lo: A Line in the Dark, Ash, and Huntress.

I went through many iterations before discovering the final cover. The main cover I focused on first was A Line in the Dark. The book had yet to be released when I had started this project, mimicking a graphic design assignment. I was limited on resources but needed to capture what I was able to discover from the plot.The story focused on a dark story within the modern period with teenagers which lead to a focus on text messaging. The main challenge was making sure it was recognizable.

Ash presented multiple challenges as I was trying to capture the dark essence yet make sure it had some connection to the plot. All the stories featured some form of dark or adventure plot line. Many also featured a focus on lesbian romance and main female characters. With Ash, I played with the quote featured explaining how the main characters fantasies related to reading by the fire with her father.

The last book, Huntress, presented the most challenges. It is more adventure based so attempting to capture that with text was more difficult.It was also the last book I decided to focus on. With all the covers, I would use found imagery until I could photograph my personal version of the cover if necessary, like with Ash. However, Huntress involved more of a focus on evoking an idea of a bow and arrow with the text.